Digital signage is a term that often used to describe the use of an electronic display device, such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Light Emitting Diode (LED) display, plasma display, or a projected display to show news, advertisements, local announcements, and other media content in public venues such as restaurants or shopping districts.
Targeted advertising helps to identify a potential viewer, and improves advertisers' Return on Investment (ROI) by providing timely and relevant advertisements to the potential viewer. Targeted advertising in the digital signage industry involves digital signs that have the capability to dynamically select and play advertisements according to the potential viewer, and even according to the traits of the potential viewer, passing by in front of the digital signs.
Audience measurement is an important consideration for a digital sign installed at a particular location. Audience measurement provides advertisers with quantifiable data regarding the exposure of their advertising content to viewers, as well as provides Return On Investment (ROI) data for the digital signage operator and advertisers. Two relevant metrics in audience measurement are viewership measurement, which counts the number of individuals that actually viewed, or looked at, the digital sign, and an opportunity-to-see (OTS) measurement, which counts the total number of individuals that passed by the digital sign but did not necessarily view the digital sign. These two values allow advertisers to better understand how many actual views their advertising content receives, as well as provide a measure of the ratio of potential audience size to actual viewers that looked at the digital sign. What is needed is a way to measure viewership and OTS in an automatic, simple, and cost effective manner.